WORLD CUP 2010: I am new England vice-captain reveals Frank Lampard

Frank Lampard today confirmed that he has been named England's new vice-captain.

The Chelsea midfielder said he was handed the position by Fabio Capello following Steven Gerrard's elevation to skipper in the wake of Rio Ferdinand's World Cup-ending injury.

'I am vice-captain,' said Lampard.

'I was told by the manager and (assistant) Franco Baldini yesterday and I am very proud of that.

I'm in charge - almost: Frank Lampard has been named England vice-captain

'Obviously I am very disappointed for Rio. He is a mate. But what can I do? I shall just try to give my input as a vice-captain.'

Ferdinand is yet to decide when to leave the England training base, having spent yesterday evening in his room in an understandably downbeat mood.

As the pair grew up in London and emerged through the West Ham academy at thesame time, Lampard has always been close to Ferdinand and offered words of consolation to him last night.

'I am very disappointed for him to say the least,' said Lampard.

'I spoke to him last night and he is obviously very down.He is such a good mate and for this to happen in the build-up to the biggest tournament made me feel sick in my stomach.'

Lampard described the incident when Ferdinand fell as 'a freak'.

New man at the helm: England skipper Steven Gerrard

But he admitted he was immediately concerned about the impact it would have.

'I was fearful for him because you could see the pain of the fall but also there was an element of fear,' he said.

'We all understand that. We've all had moments during our club careers as well where there's big games coming up and you feel you might have done something to put you out of that game.

'I understood straight away that it was potentially a bad one and then it was fingers crossed for the scan and obviously it turned out to be bad.'

It meant that less than 24 hours after taking the 'crazy' phone call summoning him to South Africa, Michael Dawson jogged onto the training ground at the Royal Bafokeng training complex.

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Dawson immediately headed for Capello, who shook him warmly by the hand and gave him a congratulatory pat on the back, with John Terry also extending his congratulations.

Dawson then embarked on a couple of laps around the pitch as his team-mates went through their paces in front of him.

Still to win his first cap and axed from Capello's 30-man provisional squad last Tuesday, the odds against Dawson lining up alongside John Terry at the heart of England's defence for the Group C opener against the United States next Saturday are fairly high.

Two of the more plausible contenders, Matthew Upson and Ledley King, were absent from the main training area this morning.

Upson reported a temperature, although any virus is not thought to be serious, and there were no obvious signs last night.

Capello is not taking any chances though and the West Ham star was ordered to rest.

King was training, although his work was contained to the gym, as the Tottenham captain tends to do in order to get the most out of his delicate knees.

Once again, Gareth Barry was able to train. Capello has vowed not to place the Manchester City man at any risk as he recovers from the ankle injury he suffered against Tottenham at the start of last month.

And Barry did train on his own this morning in order to maintain his steady progress, which Capello hopes will lead to the 29-year-old being able to train properly immediately after the United States encounter and be available for the second game against Algeria in Cape Town on June 18.